South America – the view from my window
Monday, 1 April 2013I’ve just finished a trip to South America – postings soon on walking up to Ciudad Perdida, Colombia’s fabulous jungle-shrouded ‘Lost City.’ And on a trip out to the remote Macuira National Park, way out towards the end of the desert Guajira Peninsula. Out there you feel closer to Venezuela than the rest of Colombia (you certainly drink Venezuelan Polar beer which costs about US 50c a bottle, with a 100% mark-up from the Venezuelan price). The Caribbean ABC island – Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao – are also just a stone’s throw to the west. More on my Colombian travels in the next few days.
▲ Flying back to Oz I had some great views out the window. Here’s a wonderful sunset from the Avianca A320 on my Santa Marta- Bogotá flight.
▲ The next day, as were rolling down the runway in a Qantas 747, taking off from Santiago I noted these two LAN aircraft parked – where I presume they’ve been for the past two months. They’re two of LAN’s three new Boeing 787 Dreamliners, grounded with their battery problems.
◄ Once we were airborne we headed south with great views of the Andes we headed south with great views of the Andes off to the east. It’s amazing how far south you fly as you loop across the Pacific between South America and Australia. We were down below 70° S on that long long ocean crossing. Far enough south to spot icebergs in the ocean below.
Finally we crossed south of the South Island of New Zealand (in the other direction we’d flown right over the South Island) and descended into Sydney just at dusk. My afternoon had lasted over 14 hours spread over two days, since we’d crossed the International Date Line.
